Project 4

Data-driven storytelling: How do we tell meaningful stories with data?

We live in a world that is shaped by our interaction with data, which is increasingly complex, large and accessible to few. In the final weeks of this course, we will be creating stories from datasets. For the final project, students assemble into teams to brainstorm and prototype an interactive narrative experience that tells a story with data, around data, or about data. It could be a data visualization on the web, a physical installation using hardware and human bodies, transmedia story, augmented reality game, or an interactive documentary experience.

Week 10

November 1 Intro to Project 4; Inspiration Data Lore Hacks; Design Thinking; Mime Academy Walkthrough

November 3 Exploring examples, tools, resources,

Week 11

November 8 Group work; Part A: Planning the Story; Submit to: Blackboard/Groups/Discussion Board/ Part A

November 10 Reading: Data Storytelling: Using Visualizations to share the human impact of numbers ; Group work : timelines and deliverables; Writing

Week 12

November 15 Reading: The Inevitable Chapters 10-12; Post-election Survey; Part B: Assembling the Game/Story: Submit to: Blackboard/Groups/Discussion Board/ Part B

November 17 Group work

Week 13

November 22 1st draft of positioning essay due; ELI peer-editing day

November 24 Thanksgiving

Week 14

November 29 Project 4: Group 1, 2, 3, Presentations

December 1 Project 4: Group 4, 5, 6, Presentations

Week 15

December 6 Presentations; Course evaluation; FutureMe

December 8 Conferences about Project 4

Final Exams:

Due: Revised Project – Final Exam

Tools

Video Game: GameMaker: Studio; Tutorial; Unity
Interactive Documentary: Eko ; Example
Interactive and VR Images: Thinglink – 360° VR Image: Examples, More Examples
Interactive book: iBooks; Examples (iPad)

Resources

Why You Need Data Storytellers
Finding the stories hidden in the data
On Stories: narrative matters
Data Storytelling: Using Visualizations to share the human impact of numbers
Kearney, Richard. On Stories: Thinking in Action. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001. (Excerpt)
Pomerantz, Jeffery. Metadata. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2015. (Excerpt)

Case Study

*Draft Due in Eli November 22

See Think Brownstone for Case Study examples
See 42 Entertainment for ARG descriptions
P’unk Ave

A – Project “Title“

B – Overview: 20-50 word short description of your project. Use descriptive language to entice your audience to play/read/interact with your story.

C– The challenge: 50-100 words

D– The goal: 50-100 words

E – Our approach: 50-100 words

Include the following in your discussion (Anywhere in Parts B – E) What it is (interactive documentary? Augmented Reality Game? Transmedia Story?, 2) How the audience will benefit, and 3) What the significance is.

F – Critical analysis In 300-600 words – describe (in a scholarly way) how your group designed an interactive narrative experience that tells a story featuring data. Use at least three resources from class to examine how your story engages your audience effectively. Use MLA formatting.